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Attawapiskat election under shadow of controversy – by Teresa Smith (Ottawa Citizen – August 26, 2013)

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/index.html

Off-reserve members unable to cast ballots unless they make long, expensive trip north

OTTAWA — With band council elections for the Attawapiskat First Nation set for Tuesday, some off-reserve members are still hoping the chief and council will postpone the vote to deal with widespread concerns the band’s electoral process is unfair.

The current band council and Chief Theresa Spence, who gained national attention for fasting on Victoria Island during the height of the Idle No More protests, are requiring ballots to be cast in person on the reserve Tuesday, making it difficult for band members who live outside the remote northern Cree community to have a say in Attawapiskat’s leadership. Of the First Nation’s 3,351 members, just 1,862 live on the reserve, according to July 2013 numbers from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.

“I can’t afford to go all the way there,” said Jocelyn Iahtail, who lives in Ottawa with her daughter. She left the reserve so her son could get the constant medical care he needs for a traumatic brain injury suffered during surgery. “They, of all people, should understand poverty and make it possible for off-reserve members to have a voice.”

On Monday, a return flight from Timmins to Attawapiskat was selling for $1,200. A return from Ottawa was more than $2,000.

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Canada must capitalize on its resource bounty while it still can, says Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver – by Jason Fekete (Vancouver Sun – August 26, 2013)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

OTTAWA — Calling the development and export of Canada’s resources “nation building,” federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says Canada must seize a once-in-a-lifetime energy opportunity or watch the associated economic benefits disappear.

But cultivating Canada’s natural resources demands that governments do more to earn the social licence to develop the oil, gas, diamond, uranium and other lucrative deposits found across the country, he said Monday at the annual meeting of Canada’s energy and mines ministers in Yellowknife, N.W.T.

Yet, groups observing the talks, such as Environmental Defence, say the feeling around the conference is “very disconnected with the reality” of Canadians’ concerns about the impacts of natural resource development on land, water and air.

In a keynote speech to fellow ministers, Oliver compared the development and export of the country’s natural resources to the building of the railroad across Canada or construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The country’s economic prosperity is not a birthright, he said, meaning Canada must capitalize on its resource bounty while it still can.

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PRESS RELEASE: Minister Oliver: Working Together, We Are Laying the Foundation for Canada’s Future

YELLOWKNIFE, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES–(Marketwired – Aug. 26, 2013) – The Honourable Joe Oliver, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, today delivered keynote remarks during his annual meeting with federal and provincial counterparts at the 2013 Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference (EMMC) in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Minister Oliver discussed our shared imperative of supporting Canadian jobs, energy security and standard of living through meeting the demand for Canadian natural resources at home and abroad. He highlighted milestones in our cooperative efforts to reach new markets and enhance Canada’s exemplary record of environmental stewardship.

“Canada is well-positioned to take advantage of enormous opportunity to supply burgeoning markets in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere,” said Minister Oliver. “This is a pivotal moment when we decide whether to take that opportunity or let it pass us by.”

Over the next decade, hundreds of major resource projects worth some $650 billion could begin in Canada. Natural resources directly and indirectly account for 1.8 million jobs and over 18 percent of Canada’s economy. Oil, natural gas and mining exports generate $30 billion annually to governments for critical social programs, including health care and education.

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Centerra reports ‘progress’ in talks over Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan – by Peter Koven (National Post – August 24, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO – After months of political turmoil, Centerra Gold Inc. may finally be closing in on a resolution to one of the mining industry’s most volatile disputes. Reports out of Kyrgyzstan suggest the government and Centerra are nearing agreement on a joint venture to operate the Kumtor mine. The Kyrgyz prime minister said they are discussing a 50-50 split of the project, according to one report.

Centerra cautioned that no deal has been reached, and warned investors not to speculate on the potential terms of a settlement. However, it indicated that talks with the government over its flagship mine are going well. The two sides have been discussing a transaction that would convert the government’s 32.7% stake in Centerra into a direct stake in the project.

“Centerra believes that progress has been made in those discussions,” the company said in a statement Friday. A settlement would be a relief for investors, who have feared the prospect of outright nationalization of Kumtor for more than a year.

The trouble started in June of last year, when a Kyrgyz parliamentary commission released an 800-page report on Kumtor that accused Toronto-based Centerra of massive environmental destruction.

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How important is innovation in the Sudbury cluster? – by Dick DeStefano (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – August 2013)

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA).destefan@isys.ca  This column was originally published in the August 2013 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

Often underestimated by many small and medium sized mining companies, innovation is one of the most important engines of growth. The Sudbury mining and supply cluster members have not fully embraced the value proposition that Michael Porter has clearly described as essential for success.

I have become a disciple of Porter’s business model and have diligently looked for the appropriate ingredients including leaders to grow our important mining supply and service cluster in Northern Ontario during the past 10 years.

“Michael Porter claims that clusters have the potential to affect competition in three ways: by increasing the productivity of the companies in the cluster, by driving innovation in the field, and by stimulating new businesses.

According to Porter, in the modern global economy, comparative advantage—how certain locations have special endowments (i.e., harbour, cheap labour) to overcome heavy input costs—is less relevant. Now, competitive advantage—how companies make productive use of inputs, requiring continual innovation—is more important.”

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Tuberculosis at Sask. mine sparks cross-Canada check of workers – by Kelly Malone (CJME.com – August 26, 2013)

 http://cjme.com/

Seven provinces working with TB Control Sask.

A case of tuberculosis (TB) at a Saskatchewan mine has led to contact tracing across Canada. The active tuberculosis was discovered at the Cigar Lake Cameco mine at the end of July and caused the mining company and TB Control Saskatchewan to work together to track individuals possibly exposed to the disease. The latest count showed 130 individuals spread across eight provinces from British Colombia to New Brunswick.

“It’s not uncommon. It depends on the situation and depends on what the communicable disease is,” said Deputy medical health officer in the Saskatoon Health Region Dr. Julie Kryzanowski.

“When that happens then there is notification sent out through interprovincial reporting structures to notify them of the potential exposure so they can be alert and do what needs to be done for people who live in their province or their health regions.”

Under the Public Health Act and disease control regulations there are a number of communicable diseases that are reportable by law, including TB. Public health does a follow up to figure out what individuals may have been exposed. Those people are offered a skin test to see if they have the TB bacteria and are then offered antibiotic treatment.

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BHP to Pursue Potash Venture on Strong Return Expectation – by Nichola Saminather (Bloomberg News – August 25, 2013)

http://www.businessweek.com/

BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s biggest miner, will proceed with its plans for a Canadian potash project that has been called “misguided” by its biggest shareholder, driven by the prospect of strong investor returns.

“We are continuing on this investment because we strongly believe, and we’ve talked a lot about it with the board, this is going to offer very high returns for shareholders in the decades to come,” Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie said in an interview yesterday on the Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s ‘Inside Business’ program, according to an e-mailed transcript. “We have the best undeveloped green field mine on offer to the world and what we are doing, we will be prepared to respond very quickly to the market when it’s needed.”

Russia’s OAO Uralkali, the largest potash producer, in July quit a marketing venture with Belarus’s state producer that controlled about 43 percent of global exports and kept limits on production, and signaled prices may fall by as much as a quarter. BHP said Aug. 20 that its projections for the project assume a shift away from the current market dynamic.

Melbourne-based BHP last week said it’s seeking partners for the Jansen project after approving spending of $2.6 billion. The company has been approached and has approached possible purchasers of a stake in the project, Mackenzie said then. Jansen may cost $16 billion to build, Citigroup Inc. said last month.

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In bustling Houston, it’s a case of ‘Build, baby, build!’ – by Anna Driver and Ilaina Jonas (4 Traders.com – August 25, 2013)

http://www.4-traders.com/

With Texas one of the few bright spots in the U.S. economy, the skyline of swaggering Houston is where the action is as builders and global oil companies, from Phillips 66 to Exxon Mobil Corp, look past previous busts and spend billions on gleaming new buildings.

The U.S. shale oil and gas revolution – which has already changed industries from railroads to pipelines and refineries – is helping drive the voracious appetite for office space needed for the expanding workforce in the world’s energy capital.

Demand is so hot that Houston is one of the few places where banks – including Wells Fargo & Co, which is seen as one of the more conservative big banks – will loan money for a new building without demanding developers first have a tenant.

“Houston is booming and bar none the strongest market in the United States of America,” said Joseph Sitt, chief executive of Thor Equities, which has two projects underway in Houston.

There are some 56 office buildings totaling at least 11 million square feet under construction in and around Houston, according to real estate services firm CBRE Group Inc. That is equivalent to 190 football fields.

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Australia’s mining boom rolls on for Chinese entrepreneur in the outback – by James Regan (Reuters U.S. – August 25, 2013)

http://www.reuters.com/

SYDNEY – (Reuters) – Former Chinese commodities trader Jerry Ren, who is quietly building a mining empire in the Australian outback, scoffs at talk the resources boom is over. For him its just moved north.

As some mining firms clock up billions of dollars in losses, Ren has secured millions of acres of exploration rights in Australia’s most remote regions that could soon make him a billionaire, helped by his connections in the world’s biggest consumer of minerals China.

Ren, now an Australian resident, has already been dubbed the “$900-million-dollar-man” for his estimated net worth. “There’s still plenty of money and opportunity in Australia if you know where to look,” says Ren, the son of a steel mill engineer who grew up in the shadow of the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong’s disastrous attempt to modernize China’s economy.

Ren’s privately held Australian Oil & Gas company holds a 75 percent stake in exploration rights covering 70 million acres, 25 percent of Australia’s Northern Territory, or an area larger than Afghanistan.

Under-exploited by heavy hitters like BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) and Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) as Australia’s last boom took shape further south in established iron ore and coal fields, Ren has had a near-free run to stake his claims in the Territory.

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Mine firm ousts Hells Angels – by Jason Warick (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – August 24, 2013)

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/index.html

Death threats, attacks lead to purge

A Saskatoon man’s life is in danger after he did what no other Canadian business owner has dared to attempt – he got rid of the Hells Angels. And from now on, anyone working for Xtreme Mining and Demolition will be required to deny in writing any connection to a “criminal organization” such as the Hells Angels.

“If you are associated with these type of groups, we’ve got a problem. You are out of here,” said Xtreme owner Leonard Banga. The Hells Angels were purged from Xtreme’s ranks following multiple death threats and other intimidation, as well as attacks on Banga and an employee.

Banga said he’s got nothing against the Hells Angels, pointing to his longtime friendships with several “full patch” members. But when Banga learned of the threats and violence, he knew he had to act decisively to protect his employees and his business.

The Hells Angels, through their lawyer, say the new policy is unfair. Others disagree. “I hope everyone supports (Banga). He has balls. This is how a community starts to stand up to organized crime,” said author and international Hells Angels expert Yves Lavigne.

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Mining Industry Lukewarm on Changes[Indonesia] – by Tito Summa Siahaan (Jakarta Post – August 24, 2013)

 http://www.thejakartapost.com/

The mining industry has welcomed government plans to stimulate investment in the sector but flagged as concerns the preservation of a 20 percent tax on mining exports and a lack of policy detail.

As part of a package of policies announced after a cabinet meeting on Friday, companies in natural resources, including nickel, bauxite and copper, will be eligible for tax holidays and allowances.

The government also plans to relax its mineral export quotas, which determines the proportion of resources that are not quarantined for domestic consumption.

Agus Suhartono, the vice chairman of the mineral entrepreneurs association Apemindo, said the government’s policies demonstrated priorities in conflict with the industry’s.

“Mining companies don’t have a problem with the quota,” said Agus, adding that the industry had increased output volumes despite the quota system. Indonesia Mining Association executive chairman Tony Wenas agreed, citing the growth in the nation’s nickel exports, which stood at 40 million tons for the first half of this year, up from 26 million tons in the same period in 2012.

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Stephen Harper Arctic tour: Big hopes, bigger challenges – by Tonda MacCharles (Toronto Star – August 24, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a strong vision for Canada’s North, but what stands out in his latest trip to the region is the immense challenge of making it a reality.

RAGLAN MINE, QUE. — It was a long way to come for what seems like comparatively little. Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Inuit territory Friday in northern Quebec, 400 kilometres above the tree line, to visit a nickel mine and talk about clean energy.

Or at least the exciting possibility of it. Last year, the Conservative government injected $720,000 into a feasibility test that one day may help resolve the problem of shipping diesel to the North to power many Arctic communities and lower costs of massive mining developments trying to operate far from hydro dams and other sources of energy.

Yet like so much of what the Conservative government leader has tried to do on his eighth trip to the Arctic, what stands out is the immense challenge of it all. Harper has defended his record and called his investments in the North “groundbreaking,” though he has not quite lived up to his early boastful promises of armed icebreakers and brand-new deepwater sea ports for the region.

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Group pushes for railway expansion in Canada – by Simon Kent (Toronto Sun – August 24, 2013)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

TORONTO – Around the world there is a quiet revolution brewing. Everywhere except Canada, that is. It’s based on shared principles and cuts across all political divides by uniting disparate communities through a single, common goal.

No, it’s not a religion, faith or creed. It wants a return to railways as an efficient way to move people and produce as modern roads and skies become more crowded by the day.

You can find new railways being built in Africa and Asia, Europe and the United States. Some are for fast passenger movement and more and more involve dedicated freight lines.

If this transport revolution is ever to reach critical mass here in Canada, a country that has lost more than 10,000 kilometres of track since 1990 in places as far apart as Vancouver Island and Quebec, it will need to start in the heavily populated province of Ontario.

The Northern & Eastern Ontario Rail Network (NEORN) is a lobby group dedicated to that goal. It launched a major push Monday to reawaken Canadians to the benefit of rail transport.

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The Great Potash Power Play – by Gabe Collins (The Diplomat – August 23, 2013)

http://thediplomat.com/

Potash is perhaps the world’s most strategic fertilizer. Mineable deposits are concentrated in a handful of countries, it cannot be synthesized, and crop yields suffer badly without it.

Russia-based Uralkali, the world’s largest potash producer, turned the global potash market on its head when it announced in late July 2013 it would market potash independently and stop selling through the Belarus Potash Company (“BPC”) marketing structure it previously used to coordinate exports and production.

Prior to Uralkali’s move, two major global marketers—BPC and Canada’s Canpotex—controlled around 70% of potash volume traded worldwide, which helped constrain supply and keep prices high.

Uralkali aims to boost its market share in China, where it is estimated that each 10 kilos of pork consumed requires 1 kilo of potash to produce, since Chinese pigs are increasingly fed with potash-hungry corn and soybeans. Similarly, every 44kg of rice eaten in China is thought to require 1 kg of potash to grow, with application intensity likely to rise in the year to come as China runs short of arable land and seeks to produce more grain from a static land area. Uralkali exported approximately 2 million tons of potash to China in 2012—primarily by rail—and now wants to increase this to 2.5 million tons per year, approximately 22% of China’s forecast 2013 potash demand.

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INTERVIEW-Rio keeps focus on exploration while cutting costs – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Reuters U.K. – August 23, 2013)

http://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Big miners such as Rio Tinto can slash exploration spending and still make valuable finds but they must resist the temptation to stop searching entirely or they will pay later, the company’s head of exploration said.

The secret of successful exploration on a budget, according to Rio’s Stephen McIntosh, is prioritisation and planning.

“If something is not making it, we will get out quickly or divest that opportunity, so we can reinvest into something that will be of value to Rio Tinto,” McIntosh said.

Total withdrawal from exploration – attractive as it has no impact on current production – could hit earnings in decades to come especially at a time when smaller explorers and miners cannot raise cash to fill the gap left by big players.

“If you stop your most fundamental greenfield exploration, for the majors you won’t miss it for a very long time. But you will wake up one day, want to the go to the cupboard of future options and find it a little bit bare,” McIntosh said in a telephone interview from Singapore.

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